There is an old saying in politics: if you want loyalty, get a dog. The trouble for Kristi Noem is that she infamously shot hers as a 14-month-old puppy after failing to train it properly. So, freshly fired by Donald Trump, she has absolutely nowhere left to turn.

For her 13 months in post as US Homeland Security Secretary, Noem acted like the very model of a senior Trumpian official, right down to her choice of scandals. Every kind of excessive and outrageous act Trump could think of in the Oval Office, Noem managed to replicate in her department.

Almost as soon as she started in the role, Noem blew $220m (£165m) of taxpayer funds on an ad campaign with herself front and centre – with one of the contracts going to a firm with which she had longstanding connections, an apparent violation of government ethics rules.

She threw out the Constitution as readily as the ethics rules, allowing ICE and CBP agents to enter homes without a warrant – a clear breach of the Fourth Amendment – and radically cutting down agents’ training before they were deployed to seize people from the street.

Noem even perfected Trump’s brand of personalised grift. She installed Corey Lewandowski – Trump’s onetime campaign manager, with whom she is alleged to have a long-term relationship – as a senior aide, and the two of them often flew together on a luxury jet she had acquired for her department. On one occasion, she even reportedly tried to fire a pilot for leaving her favourite blanket behind when she had to change planes, which the US Department of Homeland Security denied at the time.

Any of these would be career-ending scandals in most administrations but they are just par for the course in Trump’s term two. What seems important to Trump in this era is that his officials serve as his attack dogs – mauling Democrats and the media, and, crucially, looking good on television while they do so.

Noem had certainly tried to do this, even going so far as to brand Renee Good and Alex Pretti – the two people killed by ICE in Minneapolis – as “domestic terrorists”. But the reality is that when she was in front of Congress this week, Noem didn’t look good, and didn’t have good answers.

She made for bad TV and within hours, Trump threw her overboard. His other officials will be watching carefully. Trump has finally set a red line for his team. Anything goes, the law and Constitution be damned. Just don’t make him look bad on television.

Julie Burchill: People keep telling me I deserve to be disabled

Trump’s right-hand woman exposed the grim agenda he’s pursuing at home

In six days, Trump has exposed Britain for the broken, clunky machine it is

My mum’s gone full Maga – I’m mortified

© iNews